Info: Gordon Lightfoot

Subject: Gordon Lightfoot
From: GUEST,samdasham
Date: 07 Jul 15 - 01:39 PM

Saw Lightfoot back in Feb. at the Knight Theater in Charlotte...turned 76 back in November and still going strong...he has already booked shows for 2016...see him and his great band while you can!

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 07 Jul 15 - 05:18 PM

You know, he's completely passed me by. What album(s) would you or anyone else out there recommend that someone new to his music should start with?

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 07 Jul 15 - 06:09 PM

Sit Down Young Stranger (1970), renamed If You Could Read My Mind.

Or you could go straight to one of his 14 compilations, say Complete Greatest Hits (2002).

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 07 Jul 15 - 08:16 PM

going to see him in Glasgow May 2016===

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 07 Jul 15 - 08:45 PM

I really loved the early stuff and for me his first "Best of" album would be a good jumping off point, although "Sit Down Young Stranger", mentioned above, was a fine album.

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Jul 15 - 12:31 AM

Yep, he's good. I like his mining song "Boss Man".

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 08 Jul 15 - 04:09 AM

Yep, got my tickets for Glasgow next May too!
Albums: Sundown

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: clueless don
Date: 08 Jul 15 - 08:09 AM

My own opinion is that whichever of his albums you start with, make sure it includes "Canadian Railroad Trilogy".

Don

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: gnu
Date: 08 Jul 15 - 10:09 AM

Search You Tube and you'll buy em all. You can also buy songbooks (Anthology 1, 2)... there's a pile of songs in em.

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 08 Jul 15 - 10:29 AM

Cheers for the suggestions - I'll go hunting! Think I'll start by checking out Sit Down, Young Stranger. Now, if any Canadians out there can point me in the direction of a download of Willie Dunn's out of print 1972 album, I'm a happy man!

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 08 Jul 15 - 03:51 PM

Sit Down Young Stranger - it's now titled If You Could Read My Mind.

Gordon Lightfoot - Guitar, Piano, Vocals
Red Shea - Guitar
Ry Cooder - Guitar, Mandolin
Rick Haynes - Bass
Van Dyke Parks - Harmonium
John Sebastian - Guitar, Harmonica
Nick DeCaro - String arrangements
Randy Newman - String arrangement on "Minstrel of the Dawn" and "Approaching Lavender"
Kris Kristofferson was rumored to have provided harmony vocals on "Me and Bobby McGee".

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: GUEST,Bignige
Date: 09 Jul 15 - 05:15 AM

Played that album over and over again, still got it.

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: John Routledge
Date: 09 Jul 15 - 06:21 AM

What a trip down memory lane. Thanks guys

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: gnu
Date: 09 Jul 15 - 06:47 PM

I must dig out my two songbooks and put em up fer sale on Kijiji. No use to me anymore due to health and they should go to a proper home. If I can find them... lost them once before in the clutter. Who knows?

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: Capo da Monty
Date: 10 Jul 15 - 07:50 AM

I have two of his songbooks: Gords Gold and The Music and Verse of Gordon Lightfoot both signed by him when I met him on Vancouver Island last year.
Looking forward to his concerts in UK next May.

CdM

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 10 Jul 15 - 09:37 AM

Gordon was very much a part of the background to my younger life.
Loved his songs.
Still do.

Canadian Railroad Trilogy


(Good friend of Bruce)

"Canadian Railroad Trilogy" by Gordon Lightfoot

There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
when the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
when the green dark forest was too silent to be real
But time has no beginnings and hist'ry has no bounds
as to this verdant country they came from all around
They sailed upon her waterways and they walked the forests tall
built the mines, mills and the factories for the good of us all

And when the young man's fancy was turnin' to the spring
the railroad men grew restless for to hear the hammers ring
Their minds were overflowing with the visions of their day
and many a fortune won and lost and many a debt to pay

For they looked in the future and what did they see
They saw an iron road runnin' from the sea to the sea
Bringin' the goods to a young growin' land
all up through the seaports and into their hands

Look away said they across this mighty land
from the eastern shore to the western strand
Bring in the workers and bring up the rails
we gotta lay down the tracks and tear up the trails
Open 'er heart let the life blood flow
gotta get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow

Bring in the workers and bring up the rails
we're gonna lay down the tracks and tear up the trails
Open 'er heart let the life blood flow
gotta get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow
get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow

Behind the blue Rockies the sun is declinin'
The stars, they come stealin' at the close of the day
Across the wide prairie our loved ones lie sleeping
beyond the dark oceans in a place far away

We are the navvies who work upon the railway
swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun
Livin' on stew and drinkin' bad whiskey
bendin' our backs 'til the long days are done

We are the navvies who work upon the railway
swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun
Layin' down track and buildin' the bridges
bendin' our backs 'til the railroad is done

So over the mountains and over the plains
into the muskeg and into the rain
up the St. Lawrence all the way to Gaspe
swingin' our hammers and drawin' our pay
Layin' 'em in and tyin' 'em down
away to the bunkhouse and into the town
a dollar a day and a place for my head
a drink to the livin' a toast to the dead

Oh the song of the future has been sung
all the battles have been won
On the mountain tops we stand
all the world at our command
We have opened up the soil
with our teardrops and our toil

For there was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
when the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
when the green dark forest was too silent to be real
when the green dark forest was too silent to be real
And many are the dead men too silent... to be real

Subject: RE: Gordon Lightfoot
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 10 Jul 15 - 10:39 AM

Hi Lizzie

Like you Gordon was part of my musical growing up.

I used to do Canadian Railroad Trilogy. Took me some time to learn the words.

Not posessing Gordon's talent and ability to put over a song I struggled with it. Audiences appeared to me to lose interest someway through the song. After a while I dropped it. I took up with Me and Bobbie McGee with much more success.

I think much of Gordon's success was helped greatly by his guitarist and friend Red Shea. A " Guitarist's Guitarist" IMHO.

Another great Gordon song ......10 Degrees & Getting Colder.

He was standin' by the highway
With a sign that just said "mother"
When he heard a driver comin'
'bout a half a mile away
Then he held the sign up higher
Where no decent soul could miss it
It was ten degrees or colder
Down by bolder dam that day
He was raised up in milwaukee
Though he never was that famous
He was just a road musician
To the taverns he would go
Singin' songs about the ramblin'
The lovin' girls and gamblin'
How the world fell on his shoulders
Back in boulder I don't know
It was out in arizona
That he heard the lady listenin'
To each word that he was sayin'
To each line that he would write
So he sat down by her table and
They talked about the weather
Ninety-eight point six and risin'
Down by boulder dam that day
And she told him she would take him
For a ride in the mornin' sun
Back in boulder he had told her
"I don't know when I had a better friend"
Now he's traded off his martin
But his troubles are not over
For his feet are almost frozen
And the sun is sinkin' low
Won't you listen to me brother
If you ever loved your mother
Please pull off on the shoulder
If you're goin' milwaukee way
It's ten degrees and getting colder
Down by boulder dam today
Songwriters: LIGHTFOOT, GORDON

regards

mike

Subject: RE: Info: Gordon Lightfoot
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 11 Jul 15 - 09:43 AM

Tony Rice is a Lightfoot fan and released the CD "Tony Rice Sings Gordon Lightfoot" which is a compilation of many of the Lightfoot songs Tony has recorded over the years and it contains a lot of great singing and, predictably, a lot of great picking and provides a tasteful and flattering showcase for GL's songwriting from another perspective.

Subject: RE: Info: Gordon Lightfoot
From: vlmagee
Date: 18 Jul 15 - 01:37 PM

I maintain a fan website for him at GordonLightfoot.com. I started it in May, 1998. As a result, I have met hundreds - maybe thousands - of other Lightfoot fans. I'd second the suggestion to start with "Complete Greatest Hits". It does have "Canadian Railroad Trilogy", as well as all of his best known songs ...

I have seen him in the US and in Canada, and I will probably cross the pond to see a couple of his shows in the UK and Ireland next year. I'll throw in at least one day at the (thoroughbred horse) races, to make the trip perfect ...

Subject: RE: Info: Gordon Lightfoot
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 17 May 16 - 07:53 PM

Well the time has almost come, after a whole year since I booked our tickets. Glesga (Glasgow) the nicht!
Thanks to Mudcatter for alerting me that he was coming!